You are a
clever girl, Ruth. My dear child, the whole thing is a mistake. You do
wrong to conceal insurrection. I can tell your special friend Kathleen,
who will no longer be queen of the Wild Irish Girls, to-morrow morning,
that I have forced this confession out of you. She will not hate you;
she will forgive you. She will understand. My dear, why should you
sacrifice everything for the sake of this naughty Irish girl?"
"Because I love her, and because it would be mean," answered Ruth, and
now she burst into tears.
Miss Ravenscroft talked to her a little longer, but Ruth was firm. When
she left the head-mistress's presence she felt a certain sense almost of
elation.
"Now I don't feel so absolutely horrible," she said to herself. "Of
course I will face the governors. I will just say that I know but that I
can't tell. Yes, I believe I have done right. Anyhow, I don't feel quite
so bad as before I went to see Miss Ravenscroft."
Meanwhile Susy Hopkins was having a busy time. She went to school in the
morning, but as soon as ever lesson hours were over she flew back to her
mother's shop. There Mrs. Hopkins awaited her with a tray full of good
things.
"Now, Susy," she said, "Tom will help you, for I have got him to
promise. He will borrow a wheelbarrow, and all the things can be
stacked away tidily into it, and he will take them straight off to Aunt
Church's house with you immediately after dinner.
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